Zero Degrees
by Dark Cloud Inc
Summary: Fox McCloud and his comrades have been sent to bring back a lost technology... The answer they seek is under thier noses and millions of miles away. (Please R&R)
1. The Stranger

Zero Degrees  
  
Grey Wolf: Finally! My first intened project is actually getting done! Yay! Yay! Yay! I used a lot of time on Sonic Gaiden and still haven't worked on my announced Starfox fic. I promise to update this as often as Sonic Gaiden. I assure you, this will probably be the best dang Starfox action fic you ever read! (Unless J.Janks or Gino prove otherwise) You'll have to forgive me for any typos that might rear up, 'cuz I just got finished writing chapters for (Venomous Fang) Open Your Heart To Live and Learn, and Sonic Gaiden Prower Saga.   
  
I like feedback on my work. If I don't get enough reviews, I might stop the project.  
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THEY WAITED, READY SQUASH ANYTHING SOFT. And it was probably was going to be me. The three large, lumbering beasts were prowling around in small circles. Keeping thier distance from each other, but came closer to the small, squishy anthromroph. Rioring halflings, large lion-like creatures that were feared in this part of the galaxy. Not that they were criminals, or had any connections as lowlifes. They were feared for only one thing. Their territorial instincts. Unlike most anthromorphs, their culture revolves around territoral instincts. A two-foot invisible barrier seperated them from live people and the dead ones. Their only line of defense, beacuse, well, they had molasses for brains.  
  
And these were only mere children.  
  
Through the glass doors of the nearby space dock tavern, I could see the trapped customers inside. They were waiting for two things. One: See Fox get killed. And two: Watch the Riorings get bored and walk away. I know that I really don't want to see the outcome of number one.  
  
Time to use a trick.  
  
This one I learned from a buddy I once knew. He told me this, and said it'll work every time. I took his word for it, because he was an adult rioring. I spread my feet and firmly anchored them to the vinyl floor. I looked out the view of the thick plexiglass of the sheltered breezeway, and noticed the great contrast in atmosphere. Calm, with a few starships landing and taking off in steady rythim. I slowly appraoched it and stayed well out of the barrier. In the deepest tone that I could muster, I bellowed to the two standing at the entrance.  
  
"DO YOUR MOTHERS KNOW THAT YOU'RE HERE?" I rumbled. "IT'S PAST YOUR CURFEW BOYS, GO HOME!"  
  
All three of them, including the one on the far side of the hall, froze. They stood there motionless. The thought that a creature half thier size had commanded them with an alpha-male rioring hasn't registered in thier head. A half-second later, one of them spoke up.  
  
This one seemed to have faster molasses.  
  
"You are not rioring! You have no right to talk to us that way!" he said as he approached me. I go ready. As soon as he got a foot away, I let out a blood-freezing howl. The rioring stopped in his tracks, terrified. HE violated my territory. I was the injured party. Now I was entitled to the first punch. I reared back and drove both of my fists into the beast's stomach, where the thick skin was the thinnest. It let out a surprising squeak and shook the ground as it fell to the floor. The other two looked in shame. I took my chance and slipped by the stunned Rioring who was checking on his fallen comrade and walked into the dock tavern.   
  
As I entered, I recived a modest applause from the customers inside. It wasn't much, but I didn't expect one anyway. The rioring were absent from the doorway, and now they could finally leave from hours of waiting. I looked around, trying to see if anyone would recognize me. None did. In dissapointment, I sat at an empty table near the glassed view. The whole tavern was arranged in a fimple and gave a 'natural' look. Wooden chairs and tables decorated the room. There were fewer people here than before, because they had left that the exit was unblocked.  
  
"Buy you a drink, sir?" a fox approached me. He seemed old. The wrinkles of skin near his eyes and on his nose place him around sixty years. He wore something that resembled a spacer's outfit. Complete with black jacket and large boots. This is probably the man I was sent to look for. But I had to be sure.  
  
"No, I'm fine," I replied. He extended a hand for a hand shake and I returned it.   
  
"Fox McCloud," I said during the handshake.  
  
"Dimitri Pallock." he returned. "I see that you're a pilot," the fox said as he looked at the false patches on my jacket. I took a closer look at his face and realized that he wasn't a fox at all. A wox. His fur was colored in an uneven gray and orange color. 'Pallock?' This is definately the man I'm looking for. The Defense had issued me to go and retrive a certain cargo from a man named Pollick, though I wasn't given any details. I was sent here, planet Geeza, past the reaches of the inter-planes like Lyat and Cornera to find and retrive this object. Of couse, sending a handful of people this far in a large ship like the Great Fox wouldn't be very conservative. So I rode here on a smaller ship called the Crow's Beak. I had a few of my wingmen also, though they were waiting for my return in a hotel near the dock.  
  
"Not your ordinary pilot though, I can fly all classes," I replied. He nodded.   
  
"Then here," he said as he reached into a jacket pocket and handed me what was equivilent to a deck of cards. The registration papers. I thumbed through them, noticing that they were just copies. They were for a frieghter called the Zero Degrees, a surprise to me.  
  
"Wait, do we have to retrive the cargo from the ship and transfer it to ours?" I asked.  
  
"No, it would be more suitable if you take mine," Dimitri said. I looked at the cards more closely. It was a strange design, I never seen a ship this size to be like this. Of this size?  
  
"This is a Lion-class," I said to him.  
  
"I know, how many do you have on your crew?" he asked.  
  
"Four, including me," I replied.  
  
"I have a few aboard as well," he added. "I will be one of them. That makes eight, one more over regulation." He handed me some papers, they were identity papers of crewers. Lance Erer: a mechanic, Taris (No last name): hull repair, and Fera Pheonix, comp tech.  
  
"How did you get here with only four people?" I asked.  
  
"A few of my men had jumped ship. Apparently, they didn't know that the Defense were going to help me," He replied. "They probably couldn't pass a drug test if their lives depended on it."  
  
"I see," I replied. He handed me a marking tag. It had a barcode on it and a large red '24' on its face.  
  
"Meet me there tomorrow, I'll explain the rest," Dimitri said as he got up from the table. I also got out of my seat and headed toward the exit. I walked out of the doulbe-doors and found out something.  
  
Then I realized that the rioring had been waiting for me the whole time.  
  
"Pheh sheh..there he is, the fox!" the one on the left yelled. It seems that they were done with the territory game, and had plotted revenge. They neared me as I walked down the breezeway, I didn't know what I was going to do next, but I know that it'll invlove running. Thier heavy footsteps thumped the ground, their breathing heightened.   
  
I stepped forward, looking for anything that I can possibly do. I grabbed the handle of my laser gun from my holster, but decided that opening fire on a rioring spelled instant death. I looked at the glass.   
  
It was genuine glass, but it was thick. Below, I could spot the concrete roof of the urban 'living' area of the space port. I though of a plan. It wasn't a very good one, but it was all I had. Even worse, the rioring were running at me.   
  
I did a 90º turn, and kicked the glass as hard as I could, shattering it, but also shattering my nerves from the heel of my foot to the base of my skull. One peice of glass was hanging off, about to fall. It was as large as my forearm. I tried my best to grab it without cutting myself and held it in my hand as a makeshift knife. Both of the rioring froze. They are ferice creatures, but they faint at the sight of their blood. I stood them off for about five seconds, flicked the glass shard at one of them and jumped out of the window and into the night.  
  
I was lucky that the remaining glass didn't tear me to shreds. I landed on the roof below with a thud, and jumped into a mad dash. I bounded over rooftops easily. Probably because I was a fox, and the mental image of two enraged rioring following close behind, probably helped.  
  
I found a wide alley beside two buildings and dropped below. I looked over my shoulder to see the rioring do the same. My muscles were aching, and the rioring were gaining ground. Up ahead, I could see the alley end. Up against the wall, a stack of firewood leaned up against the wall of a house.  
  
I scrambled up its side. The rioring came up and tried to do the same, but they demolished the pyrimid as they went. I was nearly at the roof when the structure collapsed. With exteme force, I stepped off of the last remaing log before it fell apart. I kept running and jumping gaps.   
  
I didn't know if rioring can jump, but I didn't want to find out first hand. I neared a street that was filled with people near goods kiosks and jumped down. I merged in with the crowd, took off my jacket, and went about finding the hotel my friends stayed in.  
  
  
  
  
I walked up the flight of stairs ready for a bed to rest in and probably something to drink. I came up to a door near the end of a hall and knocked on it. A short scramble was heard before it was opened, and I was greeted by a blue and red face.  
  
"Hey Fox," Falco said as I walked in. "It's about time ya got here." A green frog looked up from a newspaper. The hotel room was very plain. Everything was a pale white color, and fruniture was sparse.  
  
"Fox? What took you so long?" Slippy asked. "You look like hell."  
  
"Never mind that, I got our man," I said to the two of them. "Our mission has changed slightly."  
  
"What do you mean?" Falco asked.  
  
"We have to use his ship, the Zero Degrees," I explained to them.  
  
"What do we do with the Crow's Beak?" Slippy asked.  
  
"We ground it here," I said. "We're going to use a Lion-class."   
  
"What?!" Falco exclaimed. "That means-..."  
  
"...we 'ave to fly with a second crew," Slippy finished.  
  
"Where's Katt?" I asked them. Slippy pointed to the ceiling.  
  
"She's on the roof," Falco said. "She was a little angry that she couldn't tag along with you."  
  
"I leave her here with you on purpose," I replied. I walked over to the open window and tilted my head up. I saw Katt in her uniform with her jacket zipped up, staring down into the city. I climbed up and walked over to her.  
  
"Oh, hiya Fox!" she greeted me.  
  
"What are you doing out here?" I asked her.  
  
"Lombardi got greedy with the t.v.," she said. "I got bored and went out here."  
  
"Out here? It's cold out," I told her.  
  
"Not with my jacket," she said as she patted her shoulder. I also looked off into the city and noticed something strange. Something in the distance caused a bright flash in a deep forest. It was quite a distance away from the city.  
  
"Did you see that?" I asked her.  
  
"See what? I didn't see anything," she honestly replied.   
  
"Never mind," I said.  
  
"So when are we leaving?" she asked me.  
  
"Tomorrow," I replied.  
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Grey Wolf: I hope you like it. Review to tell me your thoughts. Anyway, the next chapter has a few surprises in store for our Fox McCloud and fellow officers, so be on the look out for chapter two: Boarding the Zero Degrees. 


	2. Boarding the Zero Degrees

Zero Degrees  
  
(Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own. The. Star Fox. Franchise. Is. This. Clear?)  
Check out the Dark Cloud Inc bio page for upcoming works and info!  
Oh, Fox McCloud's age is placed AFTER Star Fox Adventures. And if you're going to complain about typo's, I am quite aware of thm.  
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Sorry for the long wait, we had some computer problems and something came up that sort of blew us off track. Just remember, usually all of our stories are updated on a Saturday or Sunday.  
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We arrived back at the spaceport, and it was as dreary as yesterday. It was early morning. The false dawn of Geeza's moon washing the dormant ships sitting at their pads in a pale yellow. Some spacers(sailors) and other curious tourists dotted the uneven squares of pavement. A customs offical called out rules, checking times, and terms of conduct with the exitement of a boy reciting a passage from a history book.   
  
We did all arrive at the port together, but I decided to check out the Zero Degrees and find Dimitri while Katt, Falco, and Slippy went to retrive supplies from the Crow's Beak. Deep down, I knew Falco and Katt were just bringing their belongings, but Slippy would actually use his head and bring food, water sives, tools, spare parts, and most importantly, toilet paper.  
  
I walked through the empty lots, occasionally checking tags near ship gates for number 24.  
  
The grounded ships were either one of two types. Some were covered with gray metal, hyperdrive shields. These were high-maintenece ships, after a few spacejumps, pressure bulges and warps would shift the shields. And if you don't have a reliable hull crewer, you were either stuck in space or you had to land in a port.  
  
The rest were black ships. Covered with solar panels and heat-absorbing pads, these ships were personal craft or Defense patrol vehicles. These ships were comparably smaller to the gray ones. Quite a few people bunched together to board these, probably touring ships.   
  
I neared gate twenty-four, and the most bizzare piece of metal I've ever seen was sitting behind the metal fence. I took the card that Dimitri gave me and swiped the black strip through the card reader fused to the gate. With a rusty clank, the gate opened and I walked into lot twenty-four and spotted the sight that was the Zero Degrees.  
  
And what a sight it was.  
  
The Zero Degrees had the most erratic and random style I've ever seen before. The mostrosity was propped up on landing skids. What seemed to be the bridge looked sunked into the body of the ship, and what I assumed to be the main fore and aft engines--each shaped shaped like a waining moon-- cupped the sides of the torpedo shaped bridge. The massive engines gave the bridge a minute look. And this was only the front of the ship.  
  
The rest of the ship seemed to be just slapped on at will. A huge bulge under the bridge stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a small hangar and a few segmented areas shaped like the hangar. I assumed that they were the living quarters. Behind that was something that resembled a sphere. It wasn't very conservative, because the main engines ran their course *through* this section of the ship. A few port and starboard engine vents pockmarked this entire portion of the ship.   
  
I took a walk to circle the Zero Degrees. After a while, I came to the rear of the ship. I noticed the atmosphere entry wings resembled those of the Great Fox. Two smaller aft engines peeked out from under the ship. I decided to save some time and walk back from under the ship. Then I found a strange structure built into the ship.  
  
It seemed that when all of the features of the ship flowed to join together under the ship, they suddenly melted together to a large, egg-shaped bulk of metal on the underside. I'm going to have quite a few words with Dimitri inside. I came around to the entrance to the gate and found a few strangers standing in front of the ship. A male hawk, a male wolf, a male iguana, and a vixen. I approached them.  
  
"You Pollock's crew?" I said as I greeted them. The hawk turned to me.  
  
"Yeah, you McCloud?" the Hawk said. I nodded. The hawk wasn't very tall, probably a few inches shorter than me. His feathers were a deep red, with black markings patterned around the area below his beak. He was wearing a denim jacket and black boots. He was a lesser anthromorph, his hands were his wings.  
  
"Where's Pollock?" I asked them. The fox spoke.  
  
"I'm not sure," she said. She, like all female foxes, had an unbeliveable beauty. Like most, had a small frame and was tall. She wore a normal spacer's utility jacket and straight-legged pants. Her bushy tail swayed from behind her.  
  
"Where's your crew?" the iguana asked me. He donned loose clothing over his green scales.  
  
"They'll be here soon," I replied. "You must be..."  
  
"Lance," the iguana said. "You name it, I can fix it." He gave me a handshake. His grip was firm, like you would want a mechanic to have. He paused and pointed to the fox and hawk. "He's Taris and she's Fara Pheonix." He turned to the wolf. "Execpt I don't know him."  
  
The wolf spoke up as he took out what seemed to be a fold of paper out of the inside of his black jacket. "I am Jeff Schider, the Defense sent me."  
  
"What? Why would the do something like that?" I asked as I took the papers and unfolding them, showing certificates of his boarding of the Zero Degrees and Defense papers showing that he was supposed to be "security" over the special cargo. Though I didn't know what it was. I could ask him later, I suppose. But of course, we were only pilots and specialsts, not secret agents.  
  
"You're waiting out here for the rest of us?" I asked. The wolf nodded. "Do you do anything else?"  
  
"Hull repair and medic. I try to be useful," Jeff said. "How familiar is everyone with this ship?" he said as he turned to the group, away from me.  
  
"We're all strangers here," Taris replied.   
  
"Aren't any of you part of his crew?" I asked. This was getting strange.  
  
"Not until last night," Lance said. "He found us around town. Told me to find some guy named McCloud at gate twentyfour.  
  
"Dimitri picked you guys off the street?" Jeff said. "Then what happened to his crew?"  
  
"He told me that his ship's crew broke off into factions and jumped ship before the other knew that they were leaving too," Fara replied.  
  
"How come you all aren't in the ship?" I asked the group of strangers.  
  
"Can't," Lance said. "The bulkhead's locked."  
  
"He probably wanted for us to wait before we go inside," Taris said to me.  
  
"Is there another entrance?" Jeff asked. Everyone shook their heads.  
  
"No. The one you see is the only way in," Fara said. "The hangar's locked from the inside." The gate re-opened and Falco and Katt walked into the landing pad. They carried a few boxes in their hands, belongings as usual.  
  
Falco used a suspected response to the ship, "What the hell is that!?"  
  
"Lombardi, where's Slippy?" I asked the falcon. Katt dropped her box to the ground.  
  
"He took a forklift and started to unload some of the Crow's Beak's cargo," Falco replied.  
  
"That's what I expected from sombody with a brain," I snorted.   
  
"Hey, don't be mean, McCloud," Katt spoke up. "I had to file out the Crow's Beak for grounding."  
  
I turned to Falco, "Katt's good. But what about you Lombardi?"  
  
"Hey, the frog snatched the only forklift near us," Falco replied. An annoying rumbling rolled through the gates: Slippy driving a forklift, stacked with numerous boxes, humming to the tune of the diesel engine. He turned off the ignition and hopped out of the small seat (for him).  
  
"Heya Fox, ya got our crew togetha?" Slippy greeted. "Are we going to launch soon?"  
  
I shook my head in response. "No, we have to find Dimitri." Taris yelled at us.  
  
"Hey, the hatch is open!" he exclaimed. He was standing on the metal launch stairway that was wedged between the bridge's cone and the left engine. With a gentle push, Taris let the bulkhead slide away to the side.   
  
"I guess that Dimitri put a time lock on the ship," Fara said. Her expression went into a worried one. "Let's go get aquainted with the ship while we wait for him," she suggested. We all shuffled up the stairway, sans Slippy.  
  
"McCloud, I'll wait here untill you open the loading hangar," Slippy said. "I want to see how big the space is in there."  
  
"Good idea," I replied. "See how many Arwings we can fit from the Crow's Beak. If you can, all three of them."  
  
"Yes sir," Slippy said before I retreated into the Zero Degrees. Jeff was behind everyone.  
  
Inside, the interior of the Zero Degrees were equally as random as the exterior. And I was just standing in the airlock. The airlock was actually a hall, with bulkheads at each ends. A worn map greeted us from the wall in front of the entrance. It showed the entire layout of the Zero Degrees. Most of my assumptions during my inspection was correct. Below deck was the hangar, and just behind that was the living quarters. The main computer frames were located all the way to the rear of the ship. Strange feature, since they would be near the bridge. Complaints flowed from the crew.  
  
"Why would enginering be below deck?" Lance asked. "That's entrirely across from where I need to be."  
  
"The shield supplies, they're in the lower deck?" Taris said.   
  
"You're a shield repair?" Katt asked. Taris nodded. "Me too," she said.  
  
"It would do us good if we did have two of us aboard," Tairs added.   
  
"Or three," Jeff added.  
  
"I guess I'll have to get used to being across from the bridge," Fara commented.   
  
"But at least Fox and I are where we belong. Up in front on the bridge," Falco said. I turned to him.  
  
"Not so fast," I stopped Falco's comment. "Pollock and I will be the pilot of his ship. You will be escort during non-jump paths."  
  
An angry expression marched over the falcon's face. "Fine, Fox. Alienate me. But what will I do during in-between jumps? Am I navigation?"  
  
"That's Slippy," I smirked. "Everyone, say hello to our cook." Before Falco could yell a compaint, Fara gave a suggestion to the whole group.  
  
"We should get familiar with our stations, Dimitri is taking long," she said to everyone. I suddenly remembered Slippy.  
  
"Taris," I addressed him. "Since the ship's supply hold is near the hangar, can you open it for the frog waiting for us?"  
  
"Sure thing," Taris said before he turned to the Anterior bulkhead at the end of the hall. Before he opened it, he called to Katt. "Hey, Katt, you coming with?" she nodded, picked up her box, and followed him.  
  
"I guess I'll do the same," Lance said while he nodded. He and Fara walked through the posterior bulkhead. Jeff jumped toward the map, searched around and walked to the anterior bulkhead, leaving only Fox and Falco in the airlock hall. I didn't bohter to stop the wolf, I trusted his actions. Falco felt that this was an appropreate time to tell his feelings of the situation.  
  
"Fox, you asshole! I don't care if you're second-in-command! Cook!? What kind of shitty idea is that!?" He nearly screamed at me. I gave him a quick push to his chest to shut him up.  
  
"Falco, don't lose it on me," I said to him. He did what I expected: he stopped and listened. "Look, I don't want to misguide Slippy. And I can't trust Katt with such a resposibility."  
  
"Fox, what are you getting at?" Falco asked.  
  
"Listen carefully," I said quietly. "The new crewers. They said that they were picked off the street and Dimitri hasn't showed up yet. We don't know what we're dealing with. So keep your eyes open."  
  
"Ok. ok." He paused for a moment. "There must be a special reason that we have to use the Zero Degrees." he turned to the map and pointed to a section of the ship. "This says 'sealed cargo'."  
  
I looked to where he was pointing. It was the egg dome on the bottom of the ship. "Sealed Cargo". The map didn't display any doors, pipes, ducts, wiring, or vents that lead to the egg. I gave a comment.  
  
"We have to find Dimitri soon and see what kind of stunt he's trying to pull on us." A loud clank assured us that the hagar doors were open. We could hear thumping footsteps below us. Falco looked around.  
  
"Go check on Slippy and help the launch crew load up the Arwings," I said. The bird nodded. We both walked to the anterior bulkhead and opened the hatch. Falco found a spiral stairway that led to below deck. I pushed forward, and came through an automatic door.  
  
The bridge, compared to the layout of the ship, was as I expected it to be. Dusty and dated computer monitors cluttered the front pilot seats. Wires, shaped like slaughtered medusas, hung in corners and through some gaps in the tile ceiling. The piloting room was smaller than it looked from the outside, and everything was cramped together. Everything in the room was a smoky, gray color. I took stood near one of the pilot positions, and noticed a box sitting on top of a nearby controll panel. A sticky note was attached to the lid that read "McCloud".  
  
I flipped up the brass knob on the wooden box and looked at the contents inside.  
  
A one page letter  
  
Registration certificates.  
  
Destination port cards.  
  
And a large, brown envelope. I opened and shook out eight five-hundred-thousand cash cards.  
  
I began to read the letter. It stated to take the Zero Degrees without him. It said that he will meet up with us on Corneria, the destiation of the ship. It then listed login numbers, edit passwords, and small details about the ship's problems. I heard the sliding noise of the automatic door behind me. I spun around and came face-to-face with Fara. I noticed small, nearly gray dots around the tops of her cheeks, giving a frekled look.  
  
"You're done, Pheonix?" I asked. "That was quick."  
  
She shook her head. "No, I hoped that there was a backup computer console here." She wiggled past me to go to the pilot's dash.   
  
"What's with the one you're assigned?" I asked.  
  
"I've seen graphing calculators faster than that thing. I just came in to start the enviormental system running." She ran her index finger over some of the keys, pressed one, and the whole ship hummed to life as the monitors flipped on, hard drives spun, and circulation vents whisled. She looked at me, and then the letter in my hand. "Did Dimitri leave that?"  
  
"Yeah, it says to leave without him," I replied as I handed it to her. Her eyes ran around the paper.  
  
"Do you want me to round everyone up for launch?" she asked. I nodded yes. This was one hell of a hot potato that the Defense had dropped into my lap. Now to see to it that everyone stayed alive.  
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	3. Incident No. 1

Zero Degrees  
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The launch went surprisingly smooth, especially the fact that it looked like it could barely stand on its grounding pads. The lerat rods tilted the ship in a 45 angle and the sirpods lactched onto slots on the ship, using thier engines to make a vertical "tugboat". They broke away when the Zero Degrees had built up enough speed to break away from Geeza's atmosphere. We bee-lined for the first jumppoint. After the uneasy stomach-churn, we were plowing through hyperspace.   
  
There was a vast differance between the Zero Degrees's and the Great Fox's velocity geometry. The Great Fox's hyper-space engines were designed to jump on-the-fly without a portal, because the engines were more vastly expensive than the ones on our souped-up rowboat. Also, the Great Fox's engines would use up most of its fuel stores when it jumped, but it was normal because Great Fox would jump near a planet and refuel. Though this was done in a star system, and jumps were just a way of saving time. If the Great Fox and Zero Degrees would do a quirky race in hyperspace, the Great Fox would win, but by a small margin.  
  
Falco was just lounging in the co-pilot's seat while Slippy was doing a few checks on the three arwings that he stored. Katt was off duity and re-configuring her quarters. As for Taris, Fara, and Lance, I presumed that they were trying tp get familiar with their equipment. Though Fara was also off-duity. Jeff told me earlier that he was going to find more about the other crewers by doing little, annoying interrogations.  
  
"Falco, what's for dinner?" I humored.  
  
"That depends, do you like Oodles of Noodles?" he chuckled.   
  
With a good meal's future crushed, I changed the subject, "What do you think we're carrying to Corneria?"   
  
"A cure for the common cold," Falco replied without missing a beat.   
  
"How long did it take you to think that one?" I asked with a smile tugging at my lips.  
  
"A good five minutes. It was either that or a prototype arwing, a new type of pulse-cannon, or many other things. But the cure felt like a good hunch."  
  
The intercom speaker that was embedded into the pilot console beeped on.  
  
"Fox, are you here?" I recognized the voice. It was the rough one of Jeff's.  
  
"I searched the entire ship, and noticed that the ship's interior is smaller than the outside."  
  
"A double-hull ship?" I said. "That's not unusual."  
  
"But this is rediculous, this ship is as big as a football field. But the interrior is as big as seven mobile homes put together."  
  
I thought for a moment. This ship was in strange shape when we found it. Then I replied, "Well, the ship's design is strange, after all."  
  
"I suppose you're right," the voice chorted back. The intercom beeped to signify that it was off.  
  
"What's with that Schider wolf? He seems to know actually less about this ship than we do." I said a moment after the intercom shut off. Thinking out loud around Falco actually gets him thinking as well.  
  
"Then why did the defense send him here? I mean, why would they send an intel who knows less than the pilots?" Falco said.  
  
"To get intelligence, probably," I said. "That probably shows how much the Defense knows."  
  
"This means we're going into this headfirst, blind, and deaf," Falco said. "Whatever we're shipping, better be worth this."  
  
The metal automatic door hissed open behind us. We shifted in our seats to greet Katt who dropped in. "Just looking around the ship." Her eyes looked around our space. "Wow, cramped in here."  
  
"Have you talked with any of the new crewers?" I asked. She nodded.  
  
"Not really, but I have been talking to Taris. He's an interesting guy."  
  
"How is he interesting?" I asked, trying not to be rude-sounding.  
  
"He loves his job, being a hull repair. He says it's like a job where you have fun too," Katt explained. "He likes to travel as well."   
  
"Hmm, his papers say that he's been doing quite a lot of jumping around star systems. But didn't he just leave jorneyman status a month ago?" I said. "Did he say anthing about where he learned?"  
  
Katt shook her head, "No, nothing really about that." She looked down at Falco. "Why are you just laying around?"  
  
"I'm not on duity for a few minutes," Falco said flatly.  
  
"Why don't you talk with the new people?" Katt asked, gently shaking the chair the falcon was in.  
  
"Why? I think a 'hi' and 'bye' is plenty of conversation between two people," Falco replied, not looking at her.  
  
"That's just like you," Katt said. "Then only exciting thing you ever did was dead-stop a bogey and blew his tail off when he overshot you."  
  
Falco opened his mouth, as if to say something smart, then resorted to, "Shut up."  
  
"I thought so," Katt said while she left the room. After her tail trailed out of the room, the door slid closed. I sat back and laughed at Falco.  
  
"What's so damn funny, Fox?" he asked with a dramatic change in expression after Katt left.  
  
"I can almost see the clothes fly off when you two argue like that," I chuckled. He frowned at me. But it's hard to frown with a beak, I saw drooping of the red feathers around his eyes.  
  
A moment after I said that, a loud, half screech, half moan rumbled through the ship. It sounded like an elephant with its testicles ripped off. I disengaged the hyperdrive and the ship went through the same warping as it did. I pressed a button on the intercom for the computer room to contact Fara.   
  
"Fara, can you pinpoint the...."  
  
"Dream on, this dinosaur of a calculator couldn't figure out where the front of the ship is, let alone where pressure fractures are," Fara said in a harsh tone.   
  
Falco and I left the room and traversed through the spiral stairs down to the supply hold to find Jeff, Katt, and Taris suiting up in spacewalker suits, talking as they geared up.  
  
"Jeff can take the anterior end of the ship while me and Katt take the other end," Taris said.  
  
"Alright," Jeff agreed.  
  
"Just you and me, baby, and we'll be off in no time," Tairs said to Katt.  
  
"Sure, and about that 'baby' thing. I like it. Sexy," Katt replied, strangely muffled by her helmet.   
  
I swore I saw Falco twitch.  
  
They finished locking the seals on their suits and proceeded to the airlock, that served as the main hall through the ship. Falco and I took our seats back in the pilot's helm and I began to switch on screens. The diffrent camera angles show many corners and nooks throughout the outside of the ship. The white scales of the ship contrasted greatly with the darkness and emptyness of space. The intercom beeped on. Not the same one from earlier, but one that was attached to the console with screws. Falco flipped over a small, hinged black box on the pilot console that revealed a blue switch. I nodded and Falco tossed it. Soon after, the artifical pull of gravity was lifted-and a row of lights on the controll board lit to signal that the airlock is open.  
  
"This shouldn't be too hard to finish," Jeff said in a let's-get-this-over-with tone. He must be annoyed to be surrounded by a bunch of crew members half his age!  
  
"Hey Taris, I think I found something," Katt said. The middle monitor blurred as the camera swung to view whatever was nearby, showing a floating Katt using suction cups to spider her way over to an invisible point on the ship. Taris also came into view, swimming through the vaccum.  
  
"A hairline crack? That's pretty good for a beginner like you," Taris said as he gently tugged at her fly-line to bring himself closer.  
  
"Is that the fracture?" I heard Jeff's voice through the intercom.  
  
"No," I heard Taris. "But we need to seal it up anyway." Right after, Katt pulled a cloth box that was velcro-ed to her left thigh. Using a controll joystick, I made to camera zoom in to see what she was going to do.  
  
"Fox?" I heard Falco mutter.   
  
"Relax, I want to know what she's doing next," I replied.  
  
"Make sure Taris stays in view, we can't trust these people yet," Falco said. I let the camera shift out to see them both. I saw Katt unzip the box and pull out a strange device. She pointed it like a gun to the crack and-  
  
-damnit. I guess all of the recent confusion made me forget what a zero-o welder looked like.  
  
"I found it," I heard Jeff's voice. "Nasty sonofabitch."   
  
"Need help?" Taris said.   
  
"Sure kid," I heard the wolf reply. The door hissed behind Falco and I and we turned to see the lanky form of Lance swimming through the doorway.   
  
"Eveything's almost useless back there," he said. "Most of the eqipment is outdated and hasn't used of a long time. And I found some stuff we don't need at all!"  
  
"Like what?" Falco said.  
  
"What good would a jackhammer do us out here?" Lance replied. Suddenly, Lance fell face-down on the floor.   
  
"The gravity!" Falco yelled. A brief moment after, a low yell crashed through the attached intercom. Jeff's scream. I moved the angle of the camera-the one where I saw Jeff last-and nothing was found.   
  
"Hhheelllpp!!!" a femenine scream bounced through the room. It sounded like Katt. In a panic, Falco and I repositioned the cameras to find the source. Falco rotated one just to see Katt hanging off into outer space with Taris holding her spacewalk line. When I saw the picture, I noticed that Katt was hanging off into space by the artifical "down" the ship's grav generator-something that never, ever should have happened. I saw that Taris pulled back on Katt's line and reached over and pulled her up.  
  
"Katt!" I yelled through the line. "Are you alright?"  
  
"Yes, I think so," she replied.   
  
"Taris, go get Jeff," Katt said to the falcon. I saw a wave of his hand as he trekked across the top of the ship.   
  
"Damn," I heard Taris say. The last monitor showed a white figure looking down to where the left air-entry wing would be. "I don't think he's councious-or one piece." I saw him bend over and click a spaceline into a notch on the ship's surface and slide off the side of the ship, out of view.  
  
Soon after, we had Jeff, Taris, and Katt back in the ship.  
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